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{{Infobox language
{{Infobox language
|image =  
|image = Ahba.svg
|imagesize = 100px
|imagesize = 100px
|imagecaption = [[Verse:Ash/Onnawasta|Onnawasta]] emblem of [[Verse:Ash/Appa|Appa]]
|name = Ash
|name = Ash
|nativename = ''ahgaa''
|nativename = ''ʼạhgaa''
|pronunciation = [ˈʔɑ̞ħˌqɑ̞ː]
|pronunciation = [ˈʔɑħˌqɑː]
|creator = [[User:Prinsessa|Ava Skoog]]
|creator = [[User:Prinsessa|Ava Skoog]]
|familycolor = ?
|familycolor = ?
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==Introduction==
==Introduction==


'''Ash''' (''ahgaa'', lit. "seaspeak", pronounced [ˈʔɑ̞ħˌqɑ̞ː]) is the anglicised name of a language mostly spoken around coastal areas, notably the town of Appa (''ahba''). Its speakers are familiar with technological advancements such as nautical vessels and steam locomotives.
'''Ash''' (''ʼạhgaa'', lit. "seaspeak", IPA [ˈʔɑħˌqɑː]) is the anglicised name of a language mostly spoken around coastal areas, notably the town of [[Verse:Ash/Appa|Appa]] (''ʼahba''). Its speakers are familiar with technological advancements such as nautical vessels and steam locomotives.


The language is mildly synthetic to polysynthetic, largely based around agglutination with fusional elements. There is a great focus on verbs, nominals being mostly uninflected, and significant pro-drop tendencies and a general focus around deixis rather than pronominal distinctions. The word order is heavily SOV.
The language is synthetic, largely based around agglutination with fusional elements. There is a great focus on verbs, nominals being mostly uninflected, and significant pro-drop tendencies and a general focus around deixis rather than pronominal distinctions. The word order is heavily SOV.


==Phonology==
==Phonology==
Line 20: Line 21:
===Phonemes===
===Phonemes===


The underlying sounds of Ash are few enough that a simple listing is preferable to a traditional table:
Due to the small number of underlying sounds in Ash and their high degree of allophonicity, a simple listing of phonemes according to phonotactic patterning is more suitable than a traditional consonant table and vowel trapezium.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
! Vocalic
! Vocalic
| {{IPA|/ai~ju~w/}}
| {{IPA|/a i~j u~w/}}
|-
|-
! Plosive
! Plosive
Line 33: Line 34:
|-
|-
! Glottal
! Glottal
| {{IPA|/h/}}
| {{IPA|/ʔ~h/}}
|-
|-
! Nasal
! Nasal
Line 39: Line 40:
|}
|}


The reasoning for this rather unusual classification is down to phonotactic patterning: these five groups all behave somewhat differently and serve as a more useful distinction than point of articulation when describing the phonology of Ash. The pair or triplet given for each phoneme refers to an alternation between various allophonic realisations despite the relatively low number of underlying sounds, an important feature of the language that makes the variation richer on the surface. For instance, long vowels (romanised by doubling the vowel) and nasal vowels (romanised using a tilde) are not analysed as phonemic.
The reasoning for this rather unusual classification is down to phonotactic patterning: these five groups all behave somewhat differently and serve as a more useful distinction than point of articulation when describing the phonology of Ash. The pair given for each phoneme refers to an alternation between various allophonic realisations despite the relatively low number of underlying sounds, an important feature of the language that makes the variation richer on the surface. For instance, long vowels (romanised by doubling the vowel) and nasal vowels (romanised using a tilde) are not analysed as phonemic.


===Romanisation===
===Romanisation===


The romanisation strikes a balance between representing phonemes versus surface realisations and uses the following seventeen letters:
The romanisation strikes a balance between representing phonemes versus surface realisations and uses the following letters as well as an apostrophe to mark a word-initial glottal stop. A dot below a vowel is used to mark stress when ambiguous.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
| a
| a
| ạ
| ã
| ã
| ạ̃
| e
| e
| ẹ
| ẽ
| ẽ
| ẹ̃
| y
| y
| o
| o
| ọ
| õ
| õ
| ọ̃
| ı
| w
| w
| b
| b
| d
| d
| g
| g
| m
| n
| ŋ
| l
| l
| s
| s
| h
| h
| m
|
| n
| ŋ
|}
|}


Line 68: Line 77:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
| {{IPA|//ˈwat.ha.ku//}}
| {{IPA|//ˈwat.ʔa.wo//}}
| → {{IPA|/ˈwah.taˌku/}}
| → {{IPA|/ˈwaʔ.ta.wo/}}
| → {{IPA|[ˈʔɔ̯ɑ̞ħ.t̠ɐˌɣʊ]}}
| → {{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑħ.t̠ɐ.]}}
| → ''oahdago'' "during the day"
| → ''oahdawo'' "during the day"
|}
|}


Line 94: Line 103:
===Prosody and stress===
===Prosody and stress===


Prefixes are always unstressed. Following the last stressed syllable an iambic pattern of secondary stress on every other underlyingly light syllable follows unless an underlyingly heavy syllable intervenes, resetting the pattern. In addition, unless at the end of a word, stressed syllables are forced to be heavy either by lengthening of the vowel or reduplication of the next syllable's onset consonant if they are not already underlyingly so.
Prefixes are always unstressed. Following the last stressed syllable an iambic pattern of secondary stress on every other underlyingly light syllable follows unless an underlyingly heavy syllable intervenes, resetting the pattern. In addition, stressed syllables are forced to be heavy either by lengthening of the vowel or reduplication of the next syllable's onset consonant if they are not already underlyingly so.


===Phonological processes===
===Clusters===


Depending on the underlying nature of a cluster, various processes take place either on a phonemic (phoneme alternation) or on a phonetic (surface allophony) level. For example, {{IPA|/t/}} merges with {{IPA|/t͡s/}} on the ''phonemic'' level before {{IPA|/i~j/}} or a plosive or an affricate, but alternates with {{IPA|[ð]}} on the ''phonetic'' level between vowels.
Depending on the underlying nature of a cluster, various processes take place either on a phonemic (phoneme alternation) or on a phonetic (surface allophony) level. For example, {{IPA|/t/}} merges with {{IPA|/t͡s/}} on the ''phonemic'' level before {{IPA|/i~j/}} or a plosive or an affricate as well as word-finally, but alternates with {{IPA|[ð]}} on the ''phonetic'' level between vowels.


* A nasal or fricative geminates before a glide, assimilating to and eliding it in the process.
* A nasal or fricative geminates before a glide, assimilating to and eliding it in the process.
* All plosives alternate phonemically with fricatives or affricates before another plosive or an affricate.
* All plosives alternate phonemically with fricatives or affricates before another plosive or an affricate.
* /h~ʔ/ (and plosives before nasals) is a fricative before vowels/glides and plosives but a glottal stop before nasals and affricates.
* {{IPA|/h~ʔ/}} is a fricative before vowels/glides and plosives but a glottal stop before nasals (as is the case for plosives) and affricates.
* Affricates are fricatives intervocalically, before other plosives or affricates, word-finally and before nasals (which are prestopped).
* Affricates are deäffricated intervocalically, before other plosives or affricates, word-finally and before nasals (which are prestopped).
* Sibilant palatalisation cascades bidirectionally through clusters; sibilants are also palatalised after {{IPA|/i/}} word-finally and cluster-initially.


<div style="float: left">
<div style="float: left">
Line 112: Line 122:
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//N-//}}
! {{IPA|//N-//}}
| [ɲ.ɲ]
| {{IPA|[ɲ.ɲ]}}
| [m.m]
| {{IPA|[m.m]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//h-//}}
! {{IPA|//h-//}}
| [ç.ç]
| {{IPA|[ç.ç]}}
| [ʍ.ʍ]
| {{IPA|[ʍ.ʍ]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|/t͡s-/}}
! {{IPA|//t͡s-//}}
| [ɕ.ɕ]
| {{IPA|[ɕ.ɕ]}}
| [s̠.s̠]
| {{IPA|[s̠.s̠]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|/t͡ɬ-/}}
! {{IPA|//t͡ɬ-//}}
|colspan="2"| <center>[ɬ.ɬ]</center>
| {{IPA|[ʎ.ʎ]}}
| {{IPA|[ɫ.ɫ]}}
|}
|}
</div>
</div>
Line 133: Line 144:
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//p-//}}
! {{IPA|//p-//}}
|rowspan="2"| /h.P/ [ħ.P]
|rowspan="2"| {{IPA|/h.P/ [ħ.P]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//k-//}}
! {{IPA|//k-//}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//t-//}}
! {{IPA|//t-//}}
| /t͡s.P/ [s̠.P~ɕ.P]
| {{IPA|/t͡s.P/ [s̠.P~ɕ.P]}}
|}
|}
</div>
</div>
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|-
|-
! {{IPA|//h-//}}
! {{IPA|//h-//}}
| [ħ.P]
| {{IPA|[ħ.P]}}
| [ʔ.P͡F]
| {{IPA|[ʔ.P͡F]}}
| /ʔ.ᴰN/
| {{IPA|/ʔ.ᴰN/}}
|}
|}
</div>
</div>
Line 160: Line 171:
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//p-//}}
! {{IPA|//p-//}}
| [ʔ.ᵇm]
| {{IPA|[ʔ.ᵇm]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//t-//}}
! {{IPA|//t-//}}
| [ʔ.ᵈn̠~ʔ.ᶡɲ]
| {{IPA|[ʔ.ᵈn̠~ʔ.ᶡɲ]}}
|-
|-
! {{IPA|//k-//}}
! {{IPA|//k-//}}
| [ʔ.ᶢŋ]
| {{IPA|[ʔ.ᶢŋ]}}
|}
|}
</div>
</div>
<div style="clear: both"></div>
<div style="clear: both"></div>
===Laterals===
The lateral affricate {{IPA|/t͡ɬ/}} patterns phonotactically just like the sibilant affricate {{IPA|/t͡s/}} but is in many deäffricated contexts no longer produced as a fricative, but as an approximant. In contexts where the affrication remains, regardless of voicing, so does the frication, i.e. {{IPA|[t͡ɬ~d͡ɮ]}}. In leniting contexts the realisation depends on the environment, remaining a fricative {{IPA|[ɬ]}} in a voiceless environment while defaulting to a pure lateral approximant {{IPA|[l]}} in a voiced one, but when geminated by the absorption of a following glide it assimilates to it as either {{IPA|[ʎ]}} or {{IPA|[ɫ]}}.
===Syllabification===
In unstressed prefixes, colourless or epenthetic vowels may drop out in favour of syllabification of an adjacent fricative or nasal. This is represented in the romanisation by the vowel letter '''ı''' placed before the non-vocalic consonant letter.
An example is the inalienable possession prefix ''(a)n-'' becoming ''ın-''. Some word stems have inherent consonantal prefixes that get resolved the same way: ''n-doo-'' "(fire) smoke" becomes ''ındoo-'' in the absence of a prefix, and ''ʼadındoo-'' when the direct marker ''ʼah-'' is added.


==Morphology==
==Morphology==


Ash does not mark words for number, person or case. With regards to syntactic patterning, only three significant word classes can be posited: verbs, nominals and adverbials. Nonetheless there is a degree of mobility between them.
Ash does not mark words for number, person or case. With regards to syntactic patterning, only three significant word classes can be posited: verbs, nominals and converbs. Nonetheless there is a degree of mobility between them.


=== Verbs ===
=== Verbs ===


The bulk of all inflection goes on verbs, making them morphemic anchors fundamental to almost any utterance in the language. The general verb template looks as follows:
The bulk of all inflection goes on verbs, making them morphemic anchors fundamental to almost any utterance in the language. The general verb template is as follows:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
| colspan="4" |
| colspan="3" |
! colspan="5" | Stem
! colspan="5" | Stem
| colspan="3" |
| colspan="2" |
|-
|-
| Deixis
| Deixis
| Trans./Poss.
| Agency
| Incorp.
| Preverb
| Preverb
| Incorp.
| Class.
| '''Root'''
| '''Root'''
| Der.
| Deriv.
| State
| State
| Mood/Nom.
| Mood
| Conj.
| Involv.
| Adv.
| Converb.
| Enclitics
|}
|}
The nominalisation slot creates a deverbal nominal and the adverbialisation slot creates an adverbial and so these two serve to change the class of the word; the possession slot is only used on deverbal nominals and not on regular verbs.


====Stems====
====Stems====


Each verb has a set of primary stems formed more or less predictably from a combination of affixes. The first stem, the stative indicative, is used as the lemma when citing words, such as ''oada'' "to shine":
Each verb has a set of primary stems formed more or less predictably from a combination of affixes. The first stem, the stative (or active, if there is no stative) indicative, is used as the lemma when citing words, such as ''oada'' "to shine", also a good example of the versatile morphophonology:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 208: Line 225:
! Stative
! Stative
! Active
! Active
! Transitional
! Inchoative
! Terminative
|-
|-
! Indicative
! Indicative
| '''''oada'''''
| '''''oada'''''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ]}}
| ''oahda''
| ''oahda''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑħ.t̠ɐ]}}
| ''oadna''
| ''oadna''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ]}}
| ''oasda''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑs̠.t̠ɐ]}}
|-
|-
! Optative
! Optative
| ''oase''
| ''oase''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ʑɪ]}}
| ''oadse''
| ''oadse''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ȶ͡ɕɪ]}}
| ''oadne''
| ''oadne''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ᶡɲɪ]}}
| ''oasdse''
{{IPA|[ˈɔ̯ɑɕ.ȶ͡ɕɪ]}}
|}
|}


All of these terms are to an extent ad hoc. Some verbs are inherently stative or active and do not have two distinct stems. The active or stative stems are the ones that are generally prone to being somewhat unpredictable, whereas the other three are formed productively. The transitional is often used in a perfective sense as opposed to the perfective or habitual active or stative.
All of these terms are to an extent ad hoc. Some verbs are inherently stative or active and do not have two distinct stems. The inchoative and terminative are often used in a perfective sense as opposed to the imperfective or habitual active or stative.


====Derived verbs====
====Derived verbs====


Derivational suffixes can be used to extend the root and create a new set of stems, such as the causative ''-j-'', the potential ''-d-'' and the frequentative ''-(d)s-'', which can themselves, depending on the word, be stative or active (all derived verbs are inherently one or the other or both and do not display the allomorphy of basic verbs), transitional and so on. These are some of the words derived from ''oo'' "consume":
Derivational suffixes can be used to extend the root and create a new set of stems, such as the causative ''-j-'' or the frequentative ''-(d)s-'', which can themselves, depending on the word, be stative or active (all derived verbs are inherently one or the other or both and do not display the allomorphy of basic verbs), inchoative, terminative and so on. These are some of the words derived from ''oo'' "consume":


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
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! Stative
! Stative
! Active
! Active
! Transitional
! Inchoative
! Terminative
|-
|-
! Basic
! Basic
| colspan="2" | <center>'''''oo''''' "eat"</center>
| colspan="2" | <center>'''''oo'''''</center>
| ''oona''
| ''oona''
| ''ohda''
|-
|-
! Causative
! Causative
| colspan="2" | <center>''oyya'' "feed"</center>
| colspan="2" | <center>''oyya''</center>
| ''oena''
| ''oena''
|-
| ''oehda''
! Potential
| colspan="2" | <center>''ooda'' "edible"</center>
| ''odna''
|-
|-
! Frequentative
! Frequentative
| colspan="2" | <center>''odsa'' "gorge"</center>
| colspan="2" | <center>''odsa''</center>
| ''osdna''
| ''osdna''
| ''osda''
|}
|}


Sometimes stems appear connected through no longer productive processes, such as ''ohwa'' "cook", related to ''oo'' "consume".
Sometimes stems appear connected through no longer productive processes, such as ''ımmohwa'' "cook", related also to ''oo''.


===Nominals===
===Nominals===


Nominals are mostly unmarked; the main kind of affixation, while resembling case marking, results in adverbialisation, thus changing the class of the word. Nominals can however be marked for possession (obligatory on inalienably possessed nominal) or be incorporated into a verb (in which case inalienably possessed nominal do lose their possessive marker).
Nominals are mostly unmarked. A handful of inherited inalienably possessed nominals are however obligatorily marked with a prefix or that disappears during incorporation into a verb. This possessive prefix ''(a)n-'' can be preceded by a deictic prefix. Here are the possessed forms of ''mõõ'' "head; hair", an inalienably possessed nominal:
 
The possessive prefix ''n-'' can be preceded by a deictic prefix. Here are the possessed forms of ''mõõ'' "head; hair; top", an inalienably possessed nominal:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
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! Distal
! Distal
|-
|-
| ''ammõõ''
| ''ımmõõ''
| ''emmõõ''
| ''emmõõ''
| ''ommõõ''
| ''ommõõ''
|}
|}


While there are few grammatical processes that modify nouns, derivational ones do exist. For example collective nouns can be formed through a reduplication process, such as ''ahba'' "the town of Appa" (in reference to the many nearby sources of water) from ''ao'' "sea" (but originally water of any kind; replaced in modern Ash by ''sãã'').
Any phrase can be nominalised using a classificatory topic marker (see below). When marked for the locative (see also below), these can be used to connect possessum to possessor.


===Adverbials===
===Converbs===


Adverbials are used to denote a place, time or manner. Their formation sometimes resembles case marking or conjunctions more than traditional adverbs, but serves that role as well.
Converbs are used to denote a place, time or manner. Their formation sometimes resembles case marking or conjunctions or adverbs.


Some prominent adverbialising suffixes:
Some prominent converbialising suffixes:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
!
!
! Suffix
! colspan="2" | Suffix
! Example
! Example
|-
|-
! Locative
! Locative
| ''-da''
| ''-da''
| ''mehda'' "by the fire"
| ''-s''
| ''sooda'' "where they live; by the house"
|-
|-
! Durative
! Durative
| ''-go''
| ''-wo''
| ''oadnago'' "in the morning"
| ''-h''
| ''oadnawo'' "when it gets bright; in the morning"
|-
|-
! Benefactive
! Benefactive
| ''-ba''
| ''-wa''
| ''eaba'' "in order to see"
| ''-wı''
| ''eewa'' "in order to see"
|-
! Semblative
| ''-ya''
| ''-yı''
| ''ʼayya'' "sea-like; blue; green"
|}
|}
The shorter forms are the historically regular outcomes of these suffixes after unstressed vowels; the longer forms have since taken over productively in normal verbs by analogy with the instances where those were always regular, but the shorter forms remain productive in the reduced forms of locative verbs (e.g. ''ʼahba las'' "in Appa"), and are still found in some common fossilised words, such as ''eas'' "here" and ''eah'' "now". Certain proper nouns retain this form for possessive constructions (e.g. ''ʼahbas ımmee'' "Appa('s) town square"). There are also instances of splits, such as the productive ''oadnada'' "where the sun rises" versus the fossilised ''oadnas'', referring specifically to the corresponding cardinal direction.


===Deixis===
===Deixis===


The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. One thing that does get marked is deixis: whether something is close to or far away from the speaker or a previous referent; unspecified deixis is also possible. On nominals deixis is generally spatial while on verbs it is temporal (proximal working roughly as a present tense and distal as a non-present one); adverbial deixis can be either depending on the characteristics of the adverbial in question.
The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. One thing that does get marked is deixis: whether something is close to or far away from the speaker or a previous referent; unspecified deixis is also possible. On nominals deixis is generally spatial while on verbs it is temporal (proximal working roughly as a present tense and distal as a non-present one); converbial deixis can be either depending on the characteristics of the converb in question.


The deictic stems are as follows:
The deictic stems are as follows:
Line 311: Line 347:
|}
|}


Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ''ee'' and ''oo'' as well as verbal and possessive prefixes ''e-'' and ''o-''. Neutral deixis sometimes surfaces epenthetically as ''a-'' due to phonotactic constraints, but is not underlyingly explicitly marked.
Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ''ea'' and ''oa'' (reduced from ''eyya'' and ''owwa'' still used for emphasis), generally shortened and tending to blend into the next word, often as {{IPA|[-ɛ(ː~ˑ)-]~[-e̞(ː)ɪ̯]~[-e̞j-]}} and {{IPA|[-ɔ(ː~ˑ)-]~[-o̞(ː)ʊ̯]~[-o̞w-]}}, but also with the glide assimilating, leading to forms such as {{IPA|[-ɪw-]}} and {{IPA|[-ʊj-]}}. In verbs with some form of TV marker, the prefixes irregularly assimilate to it, retaining the initial glottal stop but displacing the vowel, e.g. ''*e-ʼa-'' becomes ''ʼe-''.


===Conjunct and disjunct verbs===
===Conjunct and disjunct verbs===
Line 323: Line 359:
====Simple intransitives====
====Simple intransitives====


In simple statements proximal deixis combined with a conjunct verb denotes a first person while combined with a disjunct verb it denotes a second person whereas in questions this is flipped. Distal deixis or an explicit nominal denotes a third person in both cases. Note that there is no number distinction and so for example first person can imply both "I" and "we" but for the sake of space only one translation is given for each example.
In simple statements proximal deixis combined with a conjunct verb denotes a first person, while combined with a disjunct verb it denotes a second person, whereas in questions this is flipped. Distal deixis or an explicit nominal denotes a third person in both cases. Note that there is no number distinction and so for example first person can imply both "I" and "we" but for the sake of space only one translation is given for each example.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 336: Line 372:
|-
|-
! Conjunct
! Conjunct
| ''(ee) oada<u>s</u>''<br />"I am pale"
| ''(ea go) oada<u>s</u>''<br />"I am pale"
| -
| -
| ''(ee) oada<u>s</u> no?''<br />"are you pale?"
| ''(ea go) oada<u>s</u> no''<br />"are you pale?"
| -
| -
|-
|-
! Disjunct
! Disjunct
| ''(ee) oada''<br />"you are pale"
| ''(ea go) oada''<br />"you are pale"
| ''(oo) oada''<br />"they are pale"
| ''(oa go) oada''<br />"they are pale"
| ''(ee) oada no?''<br />"am I pale?"
| ''(ea go) oada no''<br />"am I pale?"
| ''(oo) oada no?''<br />"are they pale?"
| ''(oa go) oada no''<br />"are they pale?"
|}
|}


Line 365: Line 401:
|-
|-
! Conjunct
! Conjunct
| ''(ee) ahhea<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at you"
| ''(ea go) ʼahhee<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at you"
| ''(ee) assea<u>s</u>''<br />"you look at me"
| ''(ea go) ʼassee<u>s</u>''<br />"you look at me"
| ''(oo) ahhea<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at them"
| ''(oa go) ʼahhee<u>s</u>''<br />"I look at them"
| ''(oo) assea<u>s</u>''<br />"they look at me"
| ''(oa go) ʼassee<u>s</u>''<br />"they look at me"
|-
|-
! Disjunct
! Disjunct
| ''(ee) ahhea''<br />"you look at them"
| ''(ea go) ʼahhee''<br />"you look at them"
| ''(ee) assea''<br />"they look at you"
| ''(ea go) ʼassee''<br />"they look at you"
| ''(oo) ahhea''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> look at them<sub>2</sub>"
| ''(oa go) ʼahhee''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> look at them<sub>2</sub>"
| ''(oo) assea''<br />"they<sub>2</sub> look at them<sub>1</sub>"
| ''(oa go) ʼassee''<br />"they<sub>2</sub> look at them<sub>1</sub>"
|}
|}


Line 386: Line 422:
! rowspan="2" |
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | Proximal
! colspan="2" | Proximal
! Distal
|-
|-
! Conjunct source
! Conjunct source
! Disjunct source
! Disjunct source
! Disjunct source
|-
|-
! Conjunct target
! Conjunct target
| ''(ee) oase<u>s</u> (ee) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said I am pale"
| ''(ea go) oada<u>s</u> (ea go) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said I am pale"
| ''(ee) oase<u>s</u> (ee) ogaa''<br />"you said you are pale"
| ''(ea go) oada<u>s</u> (ea go) ogaa''<br />"you said you are pale"
| ''(oo) oase<u>s</u> (oo) ogaa''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> said they<sub>1</sub> are pale"
|-
|-
! Disjunct target
! Disjunct target
| ''(ee) oase (ee) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said you are pale"
| ''(ea go) oada (ea go) ogaa<u>s</u>''<br />"I said you are pale"
| ''(ee) oase (ee) ogaa''<br />"you said I am pale"
| ''(ea go) oada (ea go) ogaa''<br />"you said I am pale"
| ''(oo) oase (oo) ogaa''<br />"they<sub>1</sub> said they<sub>2</sub> are pale"
|}
|}
When the source is proximal the target can also be distal in which case it is always disjunct and refers to a third person.


====Indirect involvement====
====Indirect involvement====
Line 410: Line 440:


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=emmõõ bo ao ehbadsas
|phrase=emmõõ bo ʼao ʼehbadsas
|IPA=[ʔɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞‿ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿je̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|IPA=[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞ ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=PROX-POSS-head TOP:CRESC ao PROX-TR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|gloss=PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC ao PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|translation=Ao is braiding my hair
|translation=Ao is braiding my hair
}}
}}
Line 420: Line 450:
==Syntax==
==Syntax==


The word order is fairly strictly SOV, with adverbials generally preceding the nominals followed by the verb.
The word order is fairly strictly SOV, with converbs generally preceding the nominals followed by the verb.


===Valency===
===Valency===
Line 431: Line 461:


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ao go bahbo e<u>hh</u>ea
|phrase=ʼao go bahba ʼe<u>hh</u>ee
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ‿je̞çˈçɛ̯ɑː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ʔe̞çˈçi̯eː]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT dog PROX-<u>TR</u>-see.IND
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT dog PROX-<u>TV</u>-see.ACT.IND
|translation=Ao is looking at the dog
|translation=Ao is looking at the dog
}}
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ao go bahbo e<u>ss</u>ea
|phrase=ʼao go bahba ʼe<u>ss</u>ee
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ‿jɪɕˈɕɛ̯ɑː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT dog PROX-<u>INV</u>-see.IND
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT dog PROX-<u>INV</u>-see.ACT.IND
|translation=Ao is being watched by the dog
|translation=Ao is being watched by the dog
}}
}}
Line 451: Line 481:


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ehheas
|phrase=ʼehhees
|IPA=[ʔe̞çˈçɛ̯ɑːs̠]
|IPA=[ʔe̞çˈçi̯eːɕ]
|gloss=PROX-TR-see.IND-CONJ
|gloss=PROX-DIR-see.ACT.IND-CONJ
|translation=I am looking at it
|translation=I am looking at them
}}
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=esseas
|phrase=ʼessees
|IPA=[ʔɪɕˈɕɛ̯ɑːs̠]
|IPA=[ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eːɕ]
|gloss=PROX-INV-see.IND-CONJ
|gloss=PROX-INV-see.ACT.IND-CONJ
|translation=it is looking at me
|translation=they are looking at me
}}
 
|}
 
====Reflexivity====
 
A verb can also be made reflexive by using a deictic marker in the transitivity slot, meaning a distinction is made between proximal and distal reflexivity, corresponding to the spatial deixis of nominals rather than the normally temporal deixis of verbs.
 
{|
 
|{{gloss
|phrase=oadnawo ʼaesããs
|IPA=[ˈʔɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ.wʊ ʔɐɪ̯ˈz̠ɑ̃ːs̠]
|gloss=shine.INCH.IND-CVB:DUR REFL.PROX-LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND-CONJ
|translation=I wash in the morning
}}
 
|{{gloss
|phrase=oadnawo ʼao go ʼaosãã ma
|IPA=[ˈʔɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ.wʊ ʔɑːʊ̯‿ʁo̞ ʔɐʊ̯ˈz̠ɑ̃ː‿mɐ]
|gloss=shine.INCH.IND-CVB:DUR ao=TOP:ACT REFL.DIST-LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND NEG
|translation=Ao doesn't wash in the morning
}}
 
|}
 
Reflexivity can be used to disambiguate between cases when the first and second person implications of the proximal deixis would otherwise collapse or as a proximate-obviative distinction.
 
{|
 
|{{gloss
|phrase=emmõõ bo ea ʼehbadsas
|IPA=[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ ˈjɛˑ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC PROX PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|translation=you are braiding my hair
}}
 
|{{gloss
|phrase=emmõõ bo ea ʼeebadsas
|IPA=[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ ˈjɛˑ ʔe̞ɪ̯ˈβɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC PROX PROX-REFL.PROX-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|translation=I am braiding my hair
}}
}}


Line 471: Line 543:


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ao go bahbo od<u>sãmm</u>oyya
|phrase=ʼao go bahba od<u>sa</u>woyya
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ‿wo̞ʔˈt̠͡s̠ɑ̞̃mˌmʊʝ.ʝɐ]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ wo̞ʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐˈwʊj.jɐ]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT dog DIST-TR-<u>water</u>-consume.CAUS.IND
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT dog DIST-DIR-<u>water</u>-consume.CAUS.IND
|translation=Ao was giving the dog water to drink
|translation=Ao was giving the dog water to drink
}}
}}


====Adverbialisation====
====Converbialisation====


The other method is to completely remove the valency of the nominal by turning it into an adverbial, which is why this process sometimes resembles case marking.
The other method is to completely remove the valency of the nominal by turning it into a converb, which is why this process sometimes resembles case marking.


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ao go bahbo meh<u>da</u> odsãmmoyya
|phrase=ʼao go bahba mee<u>da</u> odsawoyya
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ‿ˈme̞ħ.t̠ɐ‿wo̞ʔˈt̠͡s̠ɑ̞̃mˌmʊʝ.ʝɐ]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ˈmi̯eː.ðɐ wo̞ʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐˈwʊj.]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT dog fire-<u>LOC</u> DIST-TR-water-consume.CAUS.IND
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT dog fire-<u>CVB:LOC</u> DIST-DIR-water-consume.CAUS.IND
|translation=Ao was giving the dog water to drink by the fire
|translation=Ao was giving the dog water to drink by the fire
}}
}}
Line 498: Line 570:
|-
|-
! Animate
! Animate
| ''bahbo go ahhoo''<br />"dogs eat it"
| ''bahba go ʼahhee''<br />"dogs watch it"
| ''bahbo go assoo''<br />"dogs are eaten"
| ''bahba go ʼassee''<br />"dogs are watched"
|-
|-
! Inanimate
! Inanimate
| ''sãã sa ahhoo''<br />"water is drunk"
| ''sãã sa ʼahhee''<br />"water is watched"
| ''*sãã sa assoo''<br />(ungrammatical)
| ''*sãã sa ʼassee''<br />(ungrammatical)
|}
|}


===Topicalisation===
===Topicalisation===


New non-verbal information is focused by fronting, i.e. introducing the word or phrase earlier in the sentence. This means that the order of subject and object might shift in order to focus on the object. When the object is inanimate inversion is not possible nor necessary, while for an animate object it is. The nominal in focus will also receive a topic marker, explained in detail in the section on locative verbs.
New non-verbal information is focused by fronting, i.e. introducing the word or phrase earlier in the sentence. This means that the order of subject and object might shift in order to focus on the object. When the object is inanimate inversion is not possible nor necessary, while for an animate object it is. The nominal in focus also receives a topic marker, explained in detail in the section on locative verbs.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 516: Line 588:
|-
|-
! Animate
! Animate
| ''ao go <u>bahbo</u> ohhea''<br />"Ao was looking at the dog"
| ''ʼao go <u>bahba</u> ʼohhee''<br />"Ao was looking at the dog"
| ''<u>bahbo go</u> ao ossea''<br />"it was the dog Ao was looking at"
| ''<u>bahba go</u> ʼao ʼossee''<br />"it was the dog Ao was looking at"
|-
|-
! Inanimate
! Inanimate
| ''ao go <u>sãã</u> ohhoo''<br />"Ao was drinking water"
| ''ʼao go <u>sãã</u> ʼohhoo''<br />"Ao was drinking water"
| ''<u>sãã sa</u> ao ohhoo''<br />"it was water Ao was drinking"
| ''<u>sãã sa</u> ʼao ʼohhoo''<br />"it was water Ao was drinking"
|}
|}


Line 529: Line 601:


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=[oo oahdago bahbo go ossoena]<sub>1</sub> [ee oahdago esseanas]<sub>2</sub>
|phrase=[owahdawo bahba go ʼossoena]<sub>1</sub> [ewahdawo ʼesseenas]<sub>2</sub>
|IPA=[ˈʔu̯oː‿ˈwɔ̯ɑ̞ħ.t̠ɐˌɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ ɣo̞‿wʊs̠ˈs̠ʊːɪ̯.n̠ɐ‿ˈji̯eː‿ˈwɔ̯ɑ̞ħ.t̠ɐˌɣʊ‿jɪɕˈɕɛ̯ɑː.n̠ɐs̠]
|IPA=[o̞ˈwɑħ.t̠ɐ.wʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ʔʊs̠ˈs̠ʊːɪ̯.n̠ɐ jɪˈwɑħ.t̠ɐ.wo̞ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː.n̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=[DIST shine.ACT.IND-DUR dog DIST-INV-consume.CAUS.TRANS.IND]<sub>1</sub> [PROX shine.ACT.IND-DUR PROX-INV-see.TRANS.IND-CONJ]<sub>2</sub>
|gloss=[DIST shine.ACT.IND-CVB:DUR dog DIST-INV-consume.CAUS.INCH.IND]<sub>1</sub> [PROX shine.ACT.IND-CVB:DUR PROX-INV-see.INCH.IND-CONJ]<sub>2</sub>
|translation=[today I saw]<sub>2</sub> [the dog that (you) fed yesterday]<sub>1</sub>
|translation=[today I saw]<sub>2</sub> [the dog that (you) fed yesterday]<sub>1</sub>
}}
}}
Line 538: Line 610:


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=bahbo go oada esseanas no?
|phrase=bahba go oada ʼesseenas no
|IPA=[ˈbɑħ.pʊ ɣo̞‿ˈwɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ‿jɪɕˈɕɛ̯ɑː.n̠ɐz̠‿ᵈn̠ʊ]
|IPA=[ˈbɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ˈwɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː.n̠ɐz̠‿ᵈn̠ʊ]
|gloss=dog TOP:ACT shine.STAT.IND PROX-INV-see.TRANS.IND-CONJ Q
|gloss=dog=TOP:ACT shine.STAT.IND PROX-INV-see.INCH.IND-CONJ Q
|translation=have you seen the white dog?
|translation=have you seen the white dog?
}}
}}
Line 548: Line 620:
In addition to unstressed locative verbs used as topicalising classifiers (see below) there are a few other words that can be unstressed to serve various purposes, mostly after verbs.
In addition to unstressed locative verbs used as topicalising classifiers (see below) there are a few other words that can be unstressed to serve various purposes, mostly after verbs.


====Interrogation, negation and emphasis====
====Modality====


Perhaps the most grammatically significant are ''ma'' for negation and ''no'' for interrogation. There is also ''yo'' for emphasis.
Perhaps the most grammatically significant are ''ma'' for negation and ''no'' for interrogation. There is also ''yo'' for emphasis.
Line 560: Line 632:
| ''ebadsa''<br />"weaving"
| ''ebadsa''<br />"weaving"
| ''ebadsa ma''<br />"not weaving"
| ''ebadsa ma''<br />"not weaving"
| ''ebadsa no?''<br />"weaving?"
| ''ebadsa no''<br />"weaving?"
| ''ebadsa yo''<br />"(really) weaving!"
| ''ebadsa yo''<br />"(really) weaving!"
|}
|}
Line 566: Line 638:
====Evidentiality====
====Evidentiality====


Reduced forms of some verbs can function as evidential markers, such as ''ya'' for observation and ''ga'' for hearsay.
Reduced forms of some verbs can function as evidential markers, such as ''e'' for observation and ''ga'' for hearsay.


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
Line 574: Line 646:
|-
|-
| ''ebadsa''<br />"weaving"
| ''ebadsa''<br />"weaving"
| ''ebadsa ya''<br />"(evidently) weaving"
| ''ebadsa e''<br />"(evidently) weaving"
| ''ebadsa ga''<br />"(allegedly) weaving"
| ''ebadsa ga''<br />"(allegedly) weaving"
|}
|}
Line 580: Line 652:
==Locative verbs==
==Locative verbs==


An important part of Ash grammar is an extensive set of so called locative verbs which are used almost like a noun classification system and cover location, motion and related concepts while providing specific information about the referent at hand, such as specifying whether liquid is involved.
An important part of Ash grammar is an extensive set of so called locative verbs which are used almost like a noun classification system and cover location, motion and related concepts while providing specific information about the referent at hand, such as specifying whether liquid is involved. These also have reduced clitic forms used as topic markers. Some locative verbs also retain non-locative meanings, such as the aerial ''see'', which in conjunction with the oral classifier, as ''osee'', means to "blow".


These are some of those verbs:
These are some of those verbs:


{| class="wikitable"
{| class="wikitable"
! Lemma
! Locative
! Topic
! Gloss
! Gloss
! Semantic range
! Semantic range
|-
|-
| ''laa''
| ''laa''
| LOC:STAT
| ''la''
| :STAT
| General stative (indefinite or permanent)
| General stative (indefinite or permanent)
|-
|-
| ''goo''
| ''goo''
| LOC:ACT
| ''go''
| :ACT
| General active (temporary or dynamic)
| General active (temporary or dynamic)
|-
|-
| ''sãã''
| ''sãã''
| LOC:LIQ
| ''sa''
| :LIQ
| Water and other liquids
| Water and other liquids
|-
|-
| ''see''
| ''see''
| LOC:AER
| ''se''
| :AER
| Air and weather
| Air and weather
|-
|-
| ''boo''
| ''boo''
| LOC:CRESC
| ''bo''
| :CRESC
| Growth (hair, plants et c.)
| Growth (hair, plants et c.)
|-
|-
| ''doo''
| ''doo''
| LOC:PART
| ''do''
| :PART
| Particles (powder, sand, dust, smoke, spores et c.)
| Particles (powder, sand, dust, smoke, spores et c.)
|-
|-
| ''mee''
| ''mee''
| LOC:PYR
| ''me''
| Fire
| :PYR
| Fire (by extension core or centre)
|-
| ''baa''
| ''ba''
| :MAN
| Hand and instrumental (things held; implements and tools)
|}
|}


===Classificatory topicalisation===
===Classificatory topicalisation===


One function of locative verbs is to resolve potential ambiguities. When used solely for classification in its unmarked form, a locative verb is unstressed and thereby shortened, resembling a particle. It doubles as a grammatically obligatory topic marker.
An unstressed locative verb is required as a topical marker following a fronted nominal, resembling a particle. The choice of verb functions much like a noun class classifier and can be used to differentiate between various meanings of a single nominal lexeme.


{|
{|


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ammõõ bo
|phrase=ımmõõ bo
|IPA=[ʔm̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ]
|IPA=[m̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ]
|gloss=POSS-head TOP:CRESC
|gloss=POSS-head=TOP:CRESC
|translation=hair (on the head)
|translation=hair (on the head)
}}
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ammõõ la
|phrase=ımmõõ la
|IPA=[ʔm̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ⁿd͡ɮɐ]
|IPA=[m̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ⁿd͡ɮɐ]
|gloss=POSS-head TOP:STAT
|gloss=POSS-head=TOP:STAT
|translation=head (on the body)
|translation=head (on the body)
}}
|{{gloss
|phrase=ammõõ go
|IPA=[ʔm̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵑɡʊ]
|gloss=POSS-head TOP:ACT
|translation=head (detached from the body)
}}
}}


|}
|}


Further verbs can be serially connected after indicating the nature of a nominal using a locative verb.
Used this way they nonetheless remain verbs with the accompanying syntactic implications. Since they create subclauses, a nominal specified for category with a locative verb cannot be used in object position and so will always precede any agent. However, since this is in line with the normal rule of topicalisation by fronting, it has no actual implications for the syntax.
 
{{gloss
|phrase=ao ammõõ bo oada
|IPA=[ʔɑːʊ̯‿ʔm̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞‿ˈwɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ]
|gloss=ao POSS-head TOP:CRESC shine.STAT.IND
|translation=Ao's hair is fair
}}
 
Used this way they nonetheless remain verbs with the accompanying syntactic implications. Since they create subclauses, a nominal specified for category with a locative verb cannot be used in object position and so will always precede any agent.


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=emmõõ bo ao ehbadsas
|phrase=emmõõ bo ʼao ʼehbadsas
|IPA=[ʔɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞‿ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿je̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|IPA=[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞ ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=PROX-POSS-head TOP:CRESC ao PROX-TR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|gloss=PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC ao PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
|translation=Ao is braiding my hair
|translation=Ao is braiding my hair
}}
}}
Since the locative verbs are only necessary when introducing new information, this ties neatly into the established system of topicalisation by fronting and so the net effect is that this limitation does not make much of a difference to normal syntax. Nominals can then be unambiguously reüsed without the classifying verb, as the information is thenceforth known from the previously established context. Note that if the classified nominal had been animate in the above example (''mõõ'' is not) inversion would have been necessary in order to mark it as the patient rather than the agent as usual.
Unstressed locatives are not applied to the pronominal-like nominals ''ee'' "this", ''oo'' "that", ''nõõ'' "what" and ''maa'' "none".


===Conjunction===
===Conjunction===


In addition to serving as a topical marker, an unstressed locative verb can also be used as a conjunction. As subject and object are never both topically marked, a series of topicalised nominals serves as a single noun phrase in the fronted subject position.
In addition to serving as a topical marker, an unstressed locative verb can also be used as a nominal conjunction. As subject and object are never both topically marked, a series of topicalised nominals serves as a single noun phrase in the fronted subject position.


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ao go bahbo go ooda egoo
|phrase=ʼao go bahba go oas egoo
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ˈβɑ̞ħ.pʊ ɣo̞‿ˈwu̯oː.ðɐ‿jɪˈɣu̯oː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ˈwɔ̯ɑːɕ‿ɕɪˈɣu̯oː]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT dog TOP:ACT DIST-LOC DIST-LOC:ACT.IND
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT dog=TOP:ACT DIST-CVB:LOC PROX-CVB:LOC:ACT.STAT/ACT.IND
|translation=Ao and the dog are over there
|translation=Ao and the dog are over there
}}
}}
Line 682: Line 747:
===Specification===
===Specification===


To denote motion, an andative ("going") or venitive ("coming") prefix is placed into the verbal classifier slot.
Prefixes such as ''n-'' "up; forth" and ''l-'' "down; away" can be used to specify location, with the inchoative stem of the locative verb providing a sense of motion toward a destination, and the terminative away from it.


{|
{{gloss
|phrase=ʼahba las ʼao go elgoo
|IPA=[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈku̯oː]
|gloss=appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.STAT/ACT.IND
|translation=Ao is down in Appa
}}


|{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ao go algoo
|phrase=ʼahba las ʼao go elgoona
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣo̞‿ʔɬ̠̩ˈku̯oː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈku̯oː.n̠ɐ]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT AND-LOC:ACT..IND
|gloss=appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.INCH.IND
|translation=Ao moves (away)
|translation=Ao went down to Appa
}}
}}


|{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ao go aŋgoo
|phrase=ʼahba las ʼao go elgohda
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣo̞‿ʔŋ̩ˈɡu̯oː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈkʷo̞ħ.t̠ɐ]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT VEN-LOC:ACT.IND
|gloss=appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.TERM.IND
|translation=Ao moves (hither)
|translation=Ao went away from Appa
}}
}}


|}
===Use with converbs===


The preverb slot can be used to specify manner, location or direction.
Converbial location is generic and locative verbs can be used to specify the meaning.


{|
{|


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ao go negoo
|phrase=ʼao sas sãã
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ɲɪˈɣu̯oː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿z̠ɐz̠ ˈd̠͡z̠ɑ̃ː]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT SUB-LOC:ACT.IND
|gloss=sea=TOP:LIQ-CVB:LOC LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND
|translation=Ao is below
|translation=(be) in the ocean; at sea
}}
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=ao go nelgoo
|phrase=ʼao sas laa
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ɣʊ ɲɪɬˈku̯oː]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿z̠ɐz̠ ˈd͡ɮɑː]
|gloss=ao TOP:ACT SUB-MOT-LOC:ACT.IND
|gloss=sea=TOP:LIQ-CVB:LOC LOC:STAT.STAT/ACT.IND
|translation=Ao goes down
|translation=(be) by the sea
}}
}}


|}
|}


===Use with adverbials===
===Possession===


Adverbial location is generic and locative verbs can be used to specify the meaning.
Unstressed locative verbs marked with the locative converbialiser ''-s'' serve to mark the possessor of a possessum.


{|
{{gloss
 
|phrase=ʼao gos ımmõõ la
|{{gloss
|IPA=[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ‿z̠m̩ˈmũ̯õː‿ⁿd͡ɮɐ]
|phrase=ahda sãã
|gloss=ao=TOP:ACT-CVB:LOC INAL-head=TOP:STAT
|IPA=[ˈʔɑ̞ħ.t̠ɐ ˈz̠ɑ̞̃ː]
|translation=Ao's head (lit. "head at Ao")
|gloss=ocean-LOC LOC:LIQ.IND
|translation=(be) in the ocean; at sea
}}
}}


|{{gloss
==Pragmatics and conventions==
|phrase=ahda laa
|IPA=[ˈʔɑ̞ħ.t̠ɐ ˈɮɑ̞ː]
|gloss=ocean-LOC LOC:STAT.IND
|translation=(be) by the ocean
}}


|}
===Modality===


==Pragmatics==
Wants, needs, desires and possibilities are often just expressed through morphological means in Ash, such as optatives, potentials and interrogatives.


Being a verb-heavy language, Ash often lacks direct nominal counterparts to nouns in more analytic languages, instead expressing many common (and uncommon) concepts descriptively through its rich morphological and derivational verb system rather than by lexicalising deverbal nominals (although this also happens), one key factor again being the locative verbs.
{|


{|
|{{gloss
|phrase=ewoes
|IPA=[ɪˈwʊːɪ̯ɕ]
|gloss=PROX-consume.ACT.OPT-CONJ
|translation=I want/need to eat; I am hungry
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=nendsãndsada
|phrase=ewoe no
|IPA=[ɲᶡɪn̠ˈd̠͡z̠ɑ̞̃n̠.d̠͡z̠ɐˌðɐ]
|IPA=[ɪˈwʊːɪ̯‿n̠ʊ]
|gloss=SUB-VEN-LOC:LIQ.FREQ.IND-LOC
|gloss=PROX-consume.ACT.OPT Q
|translation=by the (bottom of the) waterfall<br />(lit. "where water comes gushing down")
|translation=perhaps I should eat something
}}
}}


|{{gloss
|{{gloss
|phrase=neldsãndsada
|phrase=bahba go ewoe no
|IPA=[ɲᶡɪɬ.t̠͡s̠ɑ̞̃n̠.d̠͡z̠ɐˌðɐ]
|IPA=[ˈbɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ jɪˈwʊːɪ̯‿n̠ʊ]
|gloss=SUB-AND-LOC:LIQ.FREQ.IND-LOC
|gloss=dog=TOP:ACT PROX-consume.ACT.OPT Q
|translation=by the (top of the) waterfall<br />(lit. "where water goes gushing down")
|translation=maybe the dog is hungry
}}
}}


|}
|}


As this example demonstrates, there is no one lexicalised nominal for the concept of a waterfall, but a fitting verb is used depending on the context. Nonetheless the phrase is possible to nominalise if grammatically necessary and sometimes this does result in lexicalisation.
===Domestic vocabulary===
 
The verb ''soo'' carries many meanings related to the home. An important part of its usage is the focus on the host rather than the guest when describing a visit.


{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=<u>dodso</u> go nõŋgo oŋgoone?
|phrase=ʼahba las ʼao go ʼesdsoes
|IPA=[ˈd̠o̞ʔ.t̠͡s̠ʊ ɣʊ ˈn̠õ̞ŋ.ɡo̞‿wʊŋˈɡu̯oː.ɲɪ]
|IPA=[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ʁo̞ ʔɪɕˈȶ͡ɕʊːɪ̯ɕ]
|gloss=<u>smoke.FREQ.NOM</u> TOP:ACT Q-DUR DIST-VEN-LOC:ACT.TRANS.OPT
|gloss=appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-INV-LOC:DOM.STAT/ACT.OPT-CONJ
|translation=when does the <u>train</u> arrive?
|translation=I'm on my way to visit Ao in Appa
}}
}}


In such cases there may be a clear-cut distinction between such lexicalisations and productive formations.
Nonetheless it refers to the referent's own home when used intransitively.


===Modality===
{{gloss
|phrase=ʼahba las esoonas
|IPA=[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐɕ‿ɕɪˈz̠u̯oː.n̠ɐs̠]
|gloss=appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC PROX-LOC:DOM.INCH.IND-CONJ
|translation=I've moved to Appa
}}


Wants, needs, desires and possibilities are often just expressed through morphological means in Ash, such as optatives, potentials and interrogatives.
===Colour terms===


{|
Colours are mainly expressed through semblative converbs, likening the appearance of the referent to something else, such as ''mee'' "fire" → ''meyya'' "red; yellow; orange; brown" or ''ao'' "sea" → ''ʼayya'' "blue; green".


|{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=ewoes
|phrase=meyya bahba go
|IPA=[ʔɪˈwʊːɪ̯ɕ]
|IPA=[ˈme̞j.jɐ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ]
|gloss=PROX-consume.OPT-CONJ
|gloss=fire-CVB:SEMB dog=TOP:ACT
|translation=I want/need to eat; I am hungry
|translation=a brown dog
}}
}}


|{{gloss
Some are expressed through regular stative verbs like ''oada''.
|phrase=ewoe no?
|IPA=[ʔɪˈwʊːɪ̯ n̠ʊ]
|gloss=PROX-consume.OPT Q
|translation=perhaps I should eat something
}}


|{{gloss
{{gloss
|phrase=bahbo go ewoe no?
|phrase=oada bahba go
|IPA=[ˈbɑħ.pʊ ɣʊ‿jɪˈwʊːɪ̯ n̠ʊ]
|IPA=[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ]
|gloss=dog TOP:ACT PROX-consume.OPT Q
|gloss=shine.STAT.IND dog=TOP:ACT
|translation=maybe the dog is hungry
|translation=a white dog
}}
}}
|}


[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Languages]]
[[Category:Languages]]

Revision as of 00:50, 12 November 2019

Ash
ʼạhgaa
Ahba.svg
Onnawasta emblem of Appa
Pronunciation[[Help:IPA|ˈʔɑħˌqɑː]]
Created byAva Skoog
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  • Ash
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA.

Introduction

Ash (ʼạhgaa, lit. "seaspeak", IPA [ˈʔɑħˌqɑː]) is the anglicised name of a language mostly spoken around coastal areas, notably the town of Appa (ʼahba). Its speakers are familiar with technological advancements such as nautical vessels and steam locomotives.

The language is synthetic, largely based around agglutination with fusional elements. There is a great focus on verbs, nominals being mostly uninflected, and significant pro-drop tendencies and a general focus around deixis rather than pronominal distinctions. The word order is heavily SOV.

Phonology

Phonemes

Due to the small number of underlying sounds in Ash and their high degree of allophonicity, a simple listing of phonemes according to phonotactic patterning is more suitable than a traditional consonant table and vowel trapezium.

Vocalic /a i~j u~w/
Plosive /p~β t~ð k~ɣ/
Affricate /t͡ɬ~ɬ t͡s~s/
Glottal /ʔ~h/
Nasal /m~˜ n~˜ ŋ~˜/

The reasoning for this rather unusual classification is down to phonotactic patterning: these five groups all behave somewhat differently and serve as a more useful distinction than point of articulation when describing the phonology of Ash. The pair given for each phoneme refers to an alternation between various allophonic realisations despite the relatively low number of underlying sounds, an important feature of the language that makes the variation richer on the surface. For instance, long vowels (romanised by doubling the vowel) and nasal vowels (romanised using a tilde) are not analysed as phonemic.

Romanisation

The romanisation strikes a balance between representing phonemes versus surface realisations and uses the following letters as well as an apostrophe to mark a word-initial glottal stop. A dot below a vowel is used to mark stress when ambiguous.

a ã ạ̃ e ẹ̃ y o õ ọ̃ ı w b d g m n ŋ l s h

An example of a word with its archiphonemic, phonemic and surface transcriptions as well as romanisation:

//ˈwat.ʔa.wo// /ˈwaʔ.ta.wo/ [ˈɔ̯ɑħ.t̠ɐ.wʊ] oahdawo "during the day"

Syllable structure

A cluster cannot exceed two consonants and must be of one of the following configurations:

CC Both consonants are the same
FP Fricative followed by plosive
NP Nasal followed by plosive
PN~FN Plosive or fricative followed by nasal

Prosody and stress

Prefixes are always unstressed. Following the last stressed syllable an iambic pattern of secondary stress on every other underlyingly light syllable follows unless an underlyingly heavy syllable intervenes, resetting the pattern. In addition, stressed syllables are forced to be heavy either by lengthening of the vowel or reduplication of the next syllable's onset consonant if they are not already underlyingly so.

Clusters

Depending on the underlying nature of a cluster, various processes take place either on a phonemic (phoneme alternation) or on a phonetic (surface allophony) level. For example, /t/ merges with /t͡s/ on the phonemic level before /i~j/ or a plosive or an affricate as well as word-finally, but alternates with [ð] on the phonetic level between vowels.

  • A nasal or fricative geminates before a glide, assimilating to and eliding it in the process.
  • All plosives alternate phonemically with fricatives or affricates before another plosive or an affricate.
  • /h~ʔ/ is a fricative before vowels/glides and plosives but a glottal stop before nasals (as is the case for plosives) and affricates.
  • Affricates are deäffricated intervocalically, before other plosives or affricates, word-finally and before nasals (which are prestopped).
  • Sibilant palatalisation cascades bidirectionally through clusters; sibilants are also palatalised after /i/ word-finally and cluster-initially.
/-j/ /-w/
//N-// [ɲ.ɲ] [m.m]
//h-// [ç.ç] [ʍ.ʍ]
//t͡s-// [ɕ.ɕ] [s̠.s̠]
//t͡ɬ-// [ʎ.ʎ] [ɫ.ɫ]
//-P//
//p-// /h.P/ [ħ.P]
//k-//
//t-// /t͡s.P/ [s̠.P~ɕ.P]
//-P// //-P͡F// //-N//
//h-// [ħ.P] [ʔ.P͡F] /ʔ.ᴰN/
//-N//
//p-// [ʔ.ᵇm]
//t-// [ʔ.ᵈn̠~ʔ.ᶡɲ]
//k-// [ʔ.ᶢŋ]

Laterals

The lateral affricate /t͡ɬ/ patterns phonotactically just like the sibilant affricate /t͡s/ but is in many deäffricated contexts no longer produced as a fricative, but as an approximant. In contexts where the affrication remains, regardless of voicing, so does the frication, i.e. [t͡ɬ~d͡ɮ]. In leniting contexts the realisation depends on the environment, remaining a fricative [ɬ] in a voiceless environment while defaulting to a pure lateral approximant [l] in a voiced one, but when geminated by the absorption of a following glide it assimilates to it as either [ʎ] or [ɫ].

Syllabification

In unstressed prefixes, colourless or epenthetic vowels may drop out in favour of syllabification of an adjacent fricative or nasal. This is represented in the romanisation by the vowel letter ı placed before the non-vocalic consonant letter.

An example is the inalienable possession prefix (a)n- becoming ın-. Some word stems have inherent consonantal prefixes that get resolved the same way: n-doo- "(fire) smoke" becomes ındoo- in the absence of a prefix, and ʼadındoo- when the direct marker ʼah- is added.

Morphology

Ash does not mark words for number, person or case. With regards to syntactic patterning, only three significant word classes can be posited: verbs, nominals and converbs. Nonetheless there is a degree of mobility between them.

Verbs

The bulk of all inflection goes on verbs, making them morphemic anchors fundamental to almost any utterance in the language. The general verb template is as follows:

Stem
Deixis Agency Incorp. Preverb Root Deriv. State Mood Involv. Converb.

Stems

Each verb has a set of primary stems formed more or less predictably from a combination of affixes. The first stem, the stative (or active, if there is no stative) indicative, is used as the lemma when citing words, such as oada "to shine", also a good example of the versatile morphophonology:

Stative Active Inchoative Terminative
Indicative oada

[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ]

oahda

[ˈɔ̯ɑħ.t̠ɐ]

oadna

[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ]

oasda

[ˈɔ̯ɑs̠.t̠ɐ]

Optative oase

[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ʑɪ]

oadse

[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ȶ͡ɕɪ]

oadne

[ˈɔ̯ɑʔ.ᶡɲɪ]

oasdse

[ˈɔ̯ɑɕ.ȶ͡ɕɪ]

All of these terms are to an extent ad hoc. Some verbs are inherently stative or active and do not have two distinct stems. The inchoative and terminative are often used in a perfective sense as opposed to the imperfective or habitual active or stative.

Derived verbs

Derivational suffixes can be used to extend the root and create a new set of stems, such as the causative -j- or the frequentative -(d)s-, which can themselves, depending on the word, be stative or active (all derived verbs are inherently one or the other or both and do not display the allomorphy of basic verbs), inchoative, terminative and so on. These are some of the words derived from oo "consume":

Stative Active Inchoative Terminative
Basic
oo
oona ohda
Causative
oyya
oena oehda
Frequentative
odsa
osdna osda

Sometimes stems appear connected through no longer productive processes, such as ımmohwa "cook", related also to oo.

Nominals

Nominals are mostly unmarked. A handful of inherited inalienably possessed nominals are however obligatorily marked with a prefix or that disappears during incorporation into a verb. This possessive prefix (a)n- can be preceded by a deictic prefix. Here are the possessed forms of mõõ "head; hair", an inalienably possessed nominal:

Neutral Proximal Distal
ımmõõ emmõõ ommõõ

Any phrase can be nominalised using a classificatory topic marker (see below). When marked for the locative (see also below), these can be used to connect possessum to possessor.

Converbs

Converbs are used to denote a place, time or manner. Their formation sometimes resembles case marking or conjunctions or adverbs.

Some prominent converbialising suffixes:

Suffix Example
Locative -da -s sooda "where they live; by the house"
Durative -wo -h oadnawo "when it gets bright; in the morning"
Benefactive -wa -wı eewa "in order to see"
Semblative -ya -yı ʼayya "sea-like; blue; green"

The shorter forms are the historically regular outcomes of these suffixes after unstressed vowels; the longer forms have since taken over productively in normal verbs by analogy with the instances where those were always regular, but the shorter forms remain productive in the reduced forms of locative verbs (e.g. ʼahba las "in Appa"), and are still found in some common fossilised words, such as eas "here" and eah "now". Certain proper nouns retain this form for possessive constructions (e.g. ʼahbas ımmee "Appa('s) town square"). There are also instances of splits, such as the productive oadnada "where the sun rises" versus the fossilised oadnas, referring specifically to the corresponding cardinal direction.

Deixis

The language lacks true pronouns and due to its pro-drop tendencies commonly avoids alternatives as well. One thing that does get marked is deixis: whether something is close to or far away from the speaker or a previous referent; unspecified deixis is also possible. On nominals deixis is generally spatial while on verbs it is temporal (proximal working roughly as a present tense and distal as a non-present one); converbial deixis can be either depending on the characteristics of the converb in question.

The deictic stems are as follows:

Neutral Ø- (unmarked)
Proximal e-
Distal o-

Deixis occurs in the form of isolated nominals ea and oa (reduced from eyya and owwa still used for emphasis), generally shortened and tending to blend into the next word, often as [-ɛ(ː~ˑ)-]~[-e̞(ː)ɪ̯]~[-e̞j-] and [-ɔ(ː~ˑ)-]~[-o̞(ː)ʊ̯]~[-o̞w-], but also with the glide assimilating, leading to forms such as [-ɪw-] and [-ʊj-]. In verbs with some form of TV marker, the prefixes irregularly assimilate to it, retaining the initial glottal stop but displacing the vowel, e.g. *e-ʼa- becomes ʼe-.

Conjunct and disjunct verbs

While Ash lacks a set of first, second and third person pronouns, a system of so called conjunct versus disjunct verb forms can be used in combination with transitivity markers and deixis in order to more or less unambiguously cover the same ground. This concept is also known in the literature as assertor's involvement marking, which might give the reader a clearer idea of the concept: verbs are marked for whether the one making an assertion is involved in the action (conjunct) or not (disjunct).

In simple statements the assertor defaults to the speaker (i.e. first person) but in questions to the addressee (second person). In reported speech the assertor defaults to the source of the quote and may therefore also take on a third person role. First and second person roles are associated with proximal deixis while third person is associated with distal deixis or an explicit nominal.

Conjunct is marked by the suffix -s and disjunct is unmarked.

Simple intransitives

In simple statements proximal deixis combined with a conjunct verb denotes a first person, while combined with a disjunct verb it denotes a second person, whereas in questions this is flipped. Distal deixis or an explicit nominal denotes a third person in both cases. Note that there is no number distinction and so for example first person can imply both "I" and "we" but for the sake of space only one translation is given for each example.

Declarative Interrogative
Proximal Distal Proximal Distal
Conjunct (ea go) oadas
"I am pale"
- (ea go) oadas no
"are you pale?"
-
Disjunct (ea go) oada
"you are pale"
(oa go) oada
"they are pale"
(ea go) oada no
"am I pale?"
(oa go) oada no
"are they pale?"

Simple transitives

Simple transitive clauses work much the same way but the choice between a direct transitive or inverse transitive marker affects the meaning as well and is the only way to differentiate between agent and patient roles when the referents are first and second person.

Declarative
Proximal Distal
Direct Inverse Direct Inverse
Conjunct (ea go) ʼahhees
"I look at you"
(ea go) ʼassees
"you look at me"
(oa go) ʼahhees
"I look at them"
(oa go) ʼassees
"they look at me"
Disjunct (ea go) ʼahhee
"you look at them"
(ea go) ʼassee
"they look at you"
(oa go) ʼahhee
"they1 look at them2"
(oa go) ʼassee
"they2 look at them1"

The interrogative patterns the same way except for the first and second person again being flipped. As the last two examples show, the choice of transitivity marker can also serve as a proximate-obviative distinction.

Reported speech

In quotations the conjunct versus disjunct distinction instead focuses on the source of the quote, but only in the subclause. Again this may serve as a proximate-obviative distinction. This means that it is possible to mark distal referents as conjunct in such subclauses.

 Proximal
Conjunct source Disjunct source
Conjunct target (ea go) oadas (ea go) ogaas
"I said I am pale"
(ea go) oadas (ea go) ogaa
"you said you are pale"
Disjunct target (ea go) oada (ea go) ogaas
"I said you are pale"
(ea go) oada (ea go) ogaa
"you said I am pale"

Indirect involvement

As the conjunct form denotes merely whether the assertor is somehow involved in the action, the assertor need not necessarily be the agent. A conjunct form would still be used to denote first person involvement as a patient in some statements.

emmõõ bo ʼao ʼehbadsas
[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞ ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC ao PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
Ao is braiding my hair

Despite a third person being the agent of the action, the focus is on the first person (the assertor) and the verb is therefore conjunct.

Syntax

The word order is fairly strictly SOV, with converbs generally preceding the nominals followed by the verb.

Valency

Transitivity and inversion

Transitivity is explicitly marked and through an inversion marker on the verb the roles of agent and patient can be swapped without a change in word order, the purpose of which is topicalisation, leaving the topic in the subject position. The subject requires a topical marker, the details of which will be explained in detail in the section on locative verbs.

ʼao go bahba ʼehhee
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ʔe̞çˈçi̯eː]
ao=TOP:ACT dog PROX-TV-see.ACT.IND
Ao is looking at the dog
ʼao go bahba ʼessee
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː]
ao=TOP:ACT dog PROX-INV-see.ACT.IND
Ao is being watched by the dog

Inversion is especially important when the subject is being omitted as person markers do not exist.

ʼehhees
[ʔe̞çˈçi̯eːɕ]
PROX-DIR-see.ACT.IND-CONJ
I am looking at them
ʼessees
[ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eːɕ]
PROX-INV-see.ACT.IND-CONJ
they are looking at me

Reflexivity

A verb can also be made reflexive by using a deictic marker in the transitivity slot, meaning a distinction is made between proximal and distal reflexivity, corresponding to the spatial deixis of nominals rather than the normally temporal deixis of verbs.

oadnawo ʼaesããs
[ˈʔɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ.wʊ ʔɐɪ̯ˈz̠ɑ̃ːs̠]
shine.INCH.IND-CVB:DUR REFL.PROX-LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND-CONJ
I wash in the morning
oadnawo ʼao go ʼaosãã ma
[ˈʔɔ̯ɑʔ.ᵈn̠ɐ.wʊ ʔɑːʊ̯‿ʁo̞ ʔɐʊ̯ˈz̠ɑ̃ː‿mɐ]
shine.INCH.IND-CVB:DUR ao=TOP:ACT REFL.DIST-LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND NEG
Ao doesn't wash in the morning

Reflexivity can be used to disambiguate between cases when the first and second person implications of the proximal deixis would otherwise collapse or as a proximate-obviative distinction.

emmõõ bo ea ʼehbadsas
[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ ˈjɛˑ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC PROX PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
you are braiding my hair
emmõõ bo ea ʼeebadsas
[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ ˈjɛˑ ʔe̞ɪ̯ˈβɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC PROX PROX-REFL.PROX-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
I am braiding my hair

Incorporation

There is a limit on two unmarked nominal arguments of a verb. There are two ways to introduce more arguments, one of which is to incorporate the third nominal into the verb.

ʼao go bahba odsawoyya
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ wo̞ʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐˈwʊj.jɐ]
ao=TOP:ACT dog DIST-DIR-water-consume.CAUS.IND
Ao was giving the dog water to drink

Converbialisation

The other method is to completely remove the valency of the nominal by turning it into a converb, which is why this process sometimes resembles case marking.

ʼao go bahba meeda odsawoyya
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ ˈmi̯eː.ðɐ wo̞ʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐˈwʊj.jɐ]
ao=TOP:ACT dog fire-CVB:LOC DIST-DIR-water-consume.CAUS.IND
Ao was giving the dog water to drink by the fire

Animacy

While there is no explicit marking for animacy, an underlying hierarchy ranging roughly from natural forces at the top to people and animals in the middle and inanimates at the bottom governs certain parts of the grammar. The main aspect of this hierarchy is that inanimate referents cannot act as agents which affects how transitive and inverse marking is interpreted in their presence.

Transitive Inverse
Animate bahba go ʼahhee
"dogs watch it"
bahba go ʼassee
"dogs are watched"
Inanimate sãã sa ʼahhee
"water is watched"
*sãã sa ʼassee
(ungrammatical)

Topicalisation

New non-verbal information is focused by fronting, i.e. introducing the word or phrase earlier in the sentence. This means that the order of subject and object might shift in order to focus on the object. When the object is inanimate inversion is not possible nor necessary, while for an animate object it is. The nominal in focus also receives a topic marker, explained in detail in the section on locative verbs.

Normal Fronted
Animate ʼao go bahba ʼohhee
"Ao was looking at the dog"
bahba go ʼao ʼossee
"it was the dog Ao was looking at"
Inanimate ʼao go sãã ʼohhoo
"Ao was drinking water"
sãã sa ʼao ʼohhoo
"it was water Ao was drinking"

Subclauses

Relativisation is done simply by chaining phrases one after another, with no special marking. Subclauses go before main clauses, in which the deictic context is centered around the subject of the subclause.

[owahdawo bahba go ʼossoena]1 [ewahdawo ʼesseenas]2
[o̞ˈwɑħ.t̠ɐ.wʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ʔʊs̠ˈs̠ʊːɪ̯.n̠ɐ jɪˈwɑħ.t̠ɐ.wo̞ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː.n̠ɐs̠]
[DIST shine.ACT.IND-CVB:DUR dog DIST-INV-consume.CAUS.INCH.IND]1 [PROX shine.ACT.IND-CVB:DUR PROX-INV-see.INCH.IND-CONJ]2
[today I saw]2 [the dog that (you) fed yesterday]1

This is also how stative verbs are used to assign qualities to nominals.

bahba go oada ʼesseenas no
[ˈbɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ˈwɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ ʔɪɕˈɕi̯eː.n̠ɐz̠‿ᵈn̠ʊ]
dog=TOP:ACT shine.STAT.IND PROX-INV-see.INCH.IND-CONJ Q
have you seen the white dog?

Unstressed words

In addition to unstressed locative verbs used as topicalising classifiers (see below) there are a few other words that can be unstressed to serve various purposes, mostly after verbs.

Modality

Perhaps the most grammatically significant are ma for negation and no for interrogation. There is also yo for emphasis.

Declarative Negative Interrogative Emphatic
ebadsa
"weaving"
ebadsa ma
"not weaving"
ebadsa no
"weaving?"
ebadsa yo
"(really) weaving!"

Evidentiality

Reduced forms of some verbs can function as evidential markers, such as e for observation and ga for hearsay.

Declarative Observational Quotative
ebadsa
"weaving"
ebadsa e
"(evidently) weaving"
ebadsa ga
"(allegedly) weaving"

Locative verbs

An important part of Ash grammar is an extensive set of so called locative verbs which are used almost like a noun classification system and cover location, motion and related concepts while providing specific information about the referent at hand, such as specifying whether liquid is involved. These also have reduced clitic forms used as topic markers. Some locative verbs also retain non-locative meanings, such as the aerial see, which in conjunction with the oral classifier, as osee, means to "blow".

These are some of those verbs:

Locative Topic Gloss Semantic range
laa la :STAT General stative (indefinite or permanent)
goo go :ACT General active (temporary or dynamic)
sãã sa :LIQ Water and other liquids
see se :AER Air and weather
boo bo :CRESC Growth (hair, plants et c.)
doo do :PART Particles (powder, sand, dust, smoke, spores et c.)
mee me :PYR Fire (by extension core or centre)
baa ba :MAN Hand and instrumental (things held; implements and tools)

Classificatory topicalisation

An unstressed locative verb is required as a topical marker following a fronted nominal, resembling a particle. The choice of verb functions much like a noun class classifier and can be used to differentiate between various meanings of a single nominal lexeme.

ımmõõ bo
[m̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbʊ]
POSS-head=TOP:CRESC
hair (on the head)
ımmõõ la
[m̩ˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ⁿd͡ɮɐ]
POSS-head=TOP:STAT
head (on the body)

Used this way they nonetheless remain verbs with the accompanying syntactic implications. Since they create subclauses, a nominal specified for category with a locative verb cannot be used in object position and so will always precede any agent. However, since this is in line with the normal rule of topicalisation by fronting, it has no actual implications for the syntax.

emmõõ bo ʼao ʼehbadsas
[ɪmˈmũ̯õ̞ː‿ᵐbo̞ ˈʔɑːʊ̯ ʔe̞ħˈpɑʔ.t̠͡s̠ɐs̠]
PROX-INAL-head=TOP:CRESC ao PROX-DIR-hand.FREQ.IND-CONJ
Ao is braiding my hair

Conjunction

In addition to serving as a topical marker, an unstressed locative verb can also be used as a nominal conjunction. As subject and object are never both topically marked, a series of topicalised nominals serves as a single noun phrase in the fronted subject position.

ʼao go bahba go oas egoo
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ʁo̞ ˈwɔ̯ɑːɕ‿ɕɪˈɣu̯oː]
ao=TOP:ACT dog=TOP:ACT DIST-CVB:LOC PROX-CVB:LOC:ACT.STAT/ACT.IND
Ao and the dog are over there

Specification

Prefixes such as n- "up; forth" and l- "down; away" can be used to specify location, with the inchoative stem of the locative verb providing a sense of motion toward a destination, and the terminative away from it.

ʼahba las ʼao go elgoo
[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈku̯oː]
appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.STAT/ACT.IND
Ao is down in Appa
ʼahba las ʼao go elgoona
[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈku̯oː.n̠ɐ]
appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.INCH.IND
Ao went down to Appa
ʼahba las ʼao go elgohda
[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ jɪɬˈkʷo̞ħ.t̠ɐ]
appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-SUB-LOC:ACT.TERM.IND
Ao went away from Appa

Use with converbs

Converbial location is generic and locative verbs can be used to specify the meaning.

ʼao sas sãã
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿z̠ɐz̠ ˈd̠͡z̠ɑ̃ː]
sea=TOP:LIQ-CVB:LOC LOC:LIQ.STAT/ACT.IND
(be) in the ocean; at sea
ʼao sas laa
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿z̠ɐz̠ ˈd͡ɮɑː]
sea=TOP:LIQ-CVB:LOC LOC:STAT.STAT/ACT.IND
(be) by the sea

Possession

Unstressed locative verbs marked with the locative converbialiser -s serve to mark the possessor of a possessum.

ʼao gos ımmõõ la
[ˈʔɑːʊ̯‿ɣʊ‿z̠m̩ˈmũ̯õː‿ⁿd͡ɮɐ]
ao=TOP:ACT-CVB:LOC INAL-head=TOP:STAT
Ao's head (lit. "head at Ao")

Pragmatics and conventions

Modality

Wants, needs, desires and possibilities are often just expressed through morphological means in Ash, such as optatives, potentials and interrogatives.

ewoes
[ɪˈwʊːɪ̯ɕ]
PROX-consume.ACT.OPT-CONJ
I want/need to eat; I am hungry
ewoe no
[ɪˈwʊːɪ̯‿n̠ʊ]
PROX-consume.ACT.OPT Q
perhaps I should eat something
bahba go ewoe no
[ˈbɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ jɪˈwʊːɪ̯‿n̠ʊ]
dog=TOP:ACT PROX-consume.ACT.OPT Q
maybe the dog is hungry

Domestic vocabulary

The verb soo carries many meanings related to the home. An important part of its usage is the focus on the host rather than the guest when describing a visit.

ʼahba las ʼao go ʼesdsoes
[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐs̠‿ˈs̠ɑːʊ̯‿ʁo̞ ʔɪɕˈȶ͡ɕʊːɪ̯ɕ]
appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC ao=TOP:ACT PROX-INV-LOC:DOM.STAT/ACT.OPT-CONJ
I'm on my way to visit Ao in Appa

Nonetheless it refers to the referent's own home when used intransitively.

ʼahba las esoonas
[ˈʔɑħ.pɐ‿lɐɕ‿ɕɪˈz̠u̯oː.n̠ɐs̠]
appa=TOP:STAT-CVB:LOC PROX-LOC:DOM.INCH.IND-CONJ
I've moved to Appa

Colour terms

Colours are mainly expressed through semblative converbs, likening the appearance of the referent to something else, such as mee "fire" → meyya "red; yellow; orange; brown" or ao "sea" → ʼayya "blue; green".

meyya bahba go
[ˈme̞j.jɐ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ]
fire-CVB:SEMB dog=TOP:ACT
a brown dog

Some are expressed through regular stative verbs like oada.

oada bahba go
[ˈɔ̯ɑː.ðɐ ˈβɑħ.pɐ‿ɣʊ]
shine.STAT.IND dog=TOP:ACT
a white dog